Human Hijinx [Darren]

[Katya]

 Katya had decided that with all of the recovery room people needed from the Midnight fiasco (herself included), she would stay in Los Angeles for a few weeks. She had only just returned back to the city a day or so prior, and only then because Sasha had been threatening to rip Onyx apart because the leader no longer reacted favourably to her abilities. Sasha was beginning to discover the downside of her power finally, something Katya had been silently anticipating for years. Between she and Tanya, they had calmed her down and convinced her that he was damaged goods and that she did not really want him anyways. It was the furthest thing from what Katya actually subscribed to, but it would be what Sasha wanted to hear, and thus it worked.

Katya pushed open the door of Hellcat's Hollow, feeling the strong need for a drink and some company that she enjoyed. She could have chosen to see Marius, but she did not care to drop by All Hallows and have to endure the group that would no doubt want her attention. No, there was only one person whose attention she felt she could tolerate at the moment, and she saw him wiping the bar counter down just as soon as she had a clear view of the room. She smiled to herself. Was it wrong that she knew he would tend to her because of her ability and yet still exploited it? She supposed no more wrong than a beautiful female attempting to lure a male with their looks or other charms. Justifying little indiscretions would lead the way to bigger problems, but with as docile as Katya was, that day was long away.

"Hey, stranger," she said, her smoky, throaty voice still perfectly feminine. It was almost too sultry for her personality, but then again, Katya could behave many different ways. "How have you been?" She didn't sit, instead expecting him to come around and give her a hug, which he usually did. She could not deny that she enjoyed the physical contact, however forced it might have been on his part. She wore a plain dark green henley over a heather-coloured camisole, the look simple, casual and yet on her still sexy. Standard boot-cut blue jeans flared at the shins slightly and revealed her dark brown Jessica Simpson platform shoes. Her hair, long and thick and usually straight, was set in heavy waves, giving her a more mature appearance despite the fact that Katya didn't look a day over twenty-two (and couldn't if she tried).

"Did you miss me?" she asked, laughing her trademark scratchy laugh. She always sounded like she was on the verge of losing her voice and when she laughed it was especially bad, but it was somehow attractive when she did it. "How have you been?" With her heels, she was easily 5'7 instead of 5'5, but Darren was still taller than her, and with her thin form, it made it more easy for the large cat to envelope her in his arms. She liked it. Even if it was cheating.

[Darren Liten]

It really had been just a matter of time until Sasha ran into a snake that didn't play well with her 'gift', but it was rather ironic that it happened to be Lucien Cobriana, who had once been wrapped around her finger so easily.  Zaine and the others had really done a number on him, and in all of the best ways.  Nowadays, it was hard to find a situation that he didn't feel he'd maintained his dignity in dealing with it, and that was a definite switch from how things had been going before the Midnight attack.

Regardless, Darren didn't know much about Lucien except that the guy had been in some deep shit when they'd crossed paths in Midnight.  Darren still had trouble believing sometimes that he'd gotten out of that situation as well as he had, though the farther reaching consequences sometimes worried him.  He had very little doubt in his mind that there would be some serious problems arising from this, but at least he was alive and sane to deal with those issues.  If not for Persephone's interference and those vampires finding him to be agreeable, he could have been dead or enslaved.  Actually, he probably would have been, unless Ash could keep the bastards away and he'd stayed put.  Fortunately, it had worked out pretty well for him.

That wasn't to say there hadn't been any longer-lasting effects on him, though.  The situation had still been traumatic, specifically the run-in with Raphael and then Verity directly after, and he still sometimes zoned out and thought about it all until Dave or someone brought him back down to 'Earth' and the room around him.  He'd basically been doing exactly that while he wiped down the bar, so when Katya called out to him, he was pretty damn surprised.  Enough that he flicked his bright eyes up to take her in, just a little confused that he hadn't felt her enter the place.  He could always feel her coming, like a wave of warmth and affection that wrapped itself around him as soon as she arrived.  Now, that wave was missing, but it was still her. 

He fixed her with a curious smile, tilting his head very much like the cat he was, but he still came around the bar to wrap her up in his customary hug.  It just felt...different.  He wasn't exactly hesitant so much as trying to figure out the puzzle that was his favorite lady, and once he had her pulled in close to his body, he nuzzled his face into her hair to breathe deep.  She still smelled like herself, but even that was a little different.  It was actually kind of refreshing, enough that he smiled brighter when he let her go, but he didn't understand it.  She asked him if he missed her and how he'd been, and though they'd had plenty of conversations before, he felt sharper, like he could think and consider her own words better than usual. 

"I always miss you," he told her honestly, still trying to figure out what was different.  The fact that he was usually floating in the kitty-love aura was messing up his attempts, like he was sober now and trying to figure out what had changed about a room he'd only ever visited when he was blasted out of his mind.  It was a similar situation.  "I've been good, mostly.  Better than a lot of people.  How are you?"

He hadn't let her go, his hands still resting lightly on her arms, almost like he thought she'd disappear before he had a chance to figure it out if he let her go.  "Something's different.  I like it, but it's different," he told her, eyes narrowing a little as he considered it.  It wasn't a haircut, not new perfume, her clothing was still just as simple and charming as usual and her make-up didn't look any different.  It was just something.

[Katya]

 "Such a fibber," she accused when he said he always missed her, because honestly Katya thought he was full of it. She could make it sound like she was teasing him, which she did, complete with a cherubic smile that was characteristic of her. When he started saying something was different about her, she tilted her head from side to side. "Well, I just got back from California. Do I look more tan?" she asked as a joke; Katya's skin was always a light shade of olive. She was definitely darker than either of her sisters, which was a joke among the trio.

What Darren was experiencing confusion over, however, wasn't a joke, and it was what almost had Katya on the floor - the hug suddenly became Darren supporting her weight as she felt weakness wash over her. Luckily, he didn't try to pick her up, instead sinking to the floor with her. "Oh, goodness," was all she managed to murmur, putting a hand to her head as she closed her eyes. She hadn't experienced nausea in a very long time, but all of her senses felt as though they had been spun around and dulled down. Her tongue felt clumsy and her chest felt a tightness to it she couldn't explain.

"Well, I guess you're doing better than I am right now," she said, trying to make a joke of it. She suddenly felt a hard pressure in her lungs and began coughing uncontrollably. It was fairly rare for vampires to have coughing fits like so, and thus Katya's actions were understandably worrying the cat who was crouched down with her while she hacked into her hands.

"Oh my god," she hissed, realizing that she could no longer go more than a few seconds without breathing. "Darren, I need you to take me to Ash right now," she said, her tone of voice hushed, but worried. She pushed herself off of the ground and stood, placing a hand over her chest. Her heart was thundering beneath, and it was painful. It felt like she'd woken up after a long sleep and all of her joints and muscles were stuffer than ever. Once she had her bearings, she slid her arm around Darren's waist and trusted him to lead her where she needed to go. She didn't trust herself to stand on her own for the time being.

[Darren Liten]

Yeah, 'worried' was an understatement.  He hadn't realized it, but apparently, he'd had the advance warning that something was about to happen to her without understanding what it meant.  Suddenly, she was collapsing, and it was up to him to ease her to the floor gently, eyes flicking over her in search of an injury that could take a vampire down and finding nothing.  In fact, he didn't think he was holding a vampire, especially when she started coughing like she did and his sharp feline ears took notice of her pulse pounding away. 

"Shit," he hissed, understanding dawning despite how impossible it seemed to be.  He nodded at her instructions, keeping an arm around her waist with more than just a light touch, ensuring that he was helping to support her and that she felt like she had the help.  She may not have believed that he gave a crap about her without her kitty-love power blaring in his face, but she was wrong. 

Taking her to Ash was just further proof of that.  Most people weren't taken to Ash, especially if something weird was going on; the Triste liked a little bit of warning before he went out and dealt with it, but Darren wasn't paying 'the usual' much mind right about then.  He focused on getting Katya to Ash's office, knocking quickly and then just pushing the door open.  He wasn't anymore prepared for what he walked in on than he had been for Katya's sudden collapse.

"Uh.  Sorry."

[Danielle Vida]

 Danielle had been in the process of trying to hide something from Ash when Darren walked in, so what he saw was exactly the opposite of what was happening. She'd taken his favourite pen from him after he told her not to touch it ever again, because she had a habit of walking off with it. This had gone from snide comments back and forth to accusations of disregard for eachother's boundaries, and then finally Danielle snatched the pen from his hands, shoved it in her bra, and told him to see if he could get it without "losing an arm".

What Darren saw was Ash behind Danielle, both of them bent over on the desk, with his hands down her shirt. They were both laughing hysterically, so the fight had obviously been dissolved. Danielle and Ash weren't the type of people to get down and dirty in his office, especially not during business hours where someone could walk in, regardless of how early in the day it was (they had only just opened, so it wasn't even noon on a Tuesday).

"Oh, grow up," Danielle said, shoving Ash off of her. "Here, faggot, here's your stupid pen," she told Ash, slightly winded, though she was smiling. And with that, she threw it at him. It bounced off of his chest, but he caught it before it got any further than that.

"What's up? Katya, you look super pale, are you oka-aaaaaaayAsh? She's human," Danielle said, just going right for it. "What happened?" Her face went from confusion to concern, and she gestured to Darren to help her into the comfortable couch that was in the office (it was more furnished than most, thankfully). "When did this happen?"

[Katya]

 Katya tried to answer, but Darren was already ushering her to the couch, where she sat down and leaned back, taking a few deep breaths. She was fairly well composed as far as her attitude went, so her definition of panicking was to sit quietly and watch them all reacting to her situation. Her phone started to ring in its holder, so she picked it up and put it to her ear.

"Hello? Sashen'ka, what's wrong? Calm down, calm down - no, it happened to me to. Have you spoken to Tanyushka? I'll call her now. Where are you? Good, good. No, I'm at Hellcat's Hollow. No, stay right where you are, I will send someone to you. Yes, soon. Stay there." She spoke in hurried Russian, looking up at the trio in front of her nervously while she did it.

"I'm sorry, I have to call my sister," she apologized.

"It's fine, go ahead," Danielle said with a wave. She folded her arms and turned to Ash, clearing some of her blonde hair behind her ear. "What do you think happened?" she asked, her voice soft. "Darren, this just happened? What were you doing?"

"Okay," Katya said. "I'm sorry. I had to contact Connor to see if he could go and get my sister. Sasha was with Anushka at the park, and she was too scared to stay there without her abilities. Fortunately he was only around the corner." She pressed her lips together. "I had to convince Tanyushka to go to see the boy who lives in her apartment complex. He's in SWAT," she added, brows knitted as she wondered if she'd made the right choice.

"I'm sure they'll be fine, Katya," Danielle said. It took her a second to realize that Anushka was Anastasiya, Connor and Capricia's daughter. She usually referred to her as simply Anya, though Tanya called her Nastya every so often. Damn Russian women and their nicknames. It did, however, tell her just how close the sisters were to Connor and Capricia, which she couldn't say would be a good thing or a bad thing. The hunters could protect them, but how many enemies had the girls picked up over the years? Of course, she didn't know if this had happened to other vampires, or just the girls. It seemed fair if it happened to one, it happened to all of them.

[Darren Liten]

Honestly, Ash could hardly be blamed for the direction the events of the past few minutes had gone, not when Danielle was involved.  The two of them didn't actually argue often, mostly because Ash just let everything roll right off of him, which was pretty fortunate for Dani.  The very few times they'd truly fought and he'd actually gotten pissed off, he'd proven that he could put her on her ass pretty quickly.  He hadn't really been bothered too much by the pen except that he was tired of it disappearing and told her so when he'd gotten it back from her last time.  This time, she snatched it up despite his warning and the entire situation snowballed.  The discussion that followed included him pointing out her lack of any kind of respect for personal boundaries (she was like a cat that had to jump up onto the newspaper you were reading, just because she could), and the irony of it was that he usually didn't mind. 

Why today, then?  He was waist-deep in paperwork, orders that needed to go out so that they had the supplies they needed for the big Halloween bash that the Hollow was putting on and schedules.  God, he hated making schedules.

Dani was just the distraction he did and didn't need, and she went ahead and showed him just how badly when she shoved the pen down her shirt and told him that he could have it back if he could retrieve it without losing an arm.

Well, then.  He stared at her appraisingly, one eyebrow cocking up and his irritation fizzling out a little before giving an understanding nod.  "I accept your challenge," he said simply, and then he was on his feet, they were struggling against each other and he finally pinned her against his desk so that he could reach around and try to get at the pen in her shirt.  At some point directly after he'd agreed to play her game, the anger that had prompted her to make the challenge was gone entirely and they were laughing, her still fighting to keep him from getting at the pen and him trying to snatch it and quite enjoying even the failed attempts.

That was when Darren gave a short knock at the door and just pushed it open, though Ash wasn't honestly sure if he gave a shit.  He glanced up without bothering to right either of them, and it was because Danielle shoved him off that he gave up on his attempts at the pen, taking in the two guests with a much better attitude than he would have if they'd been half an hour earlier.  Dani told him to grow up and called him a 'faggot', which was even funnier considering where he'd just had to go digging for the pen.  Still, other than raising that one eyebrow at her with an 'oh really?' kind of look on his face, all he did was catch the pen once it bounced off of her chest and give Darren and Katya his full attention.

Oh.  Oh.  He didn't need Dani to point out Katya's condition to him, not once he actually paid attention to her, and to Darren.  The leopard's eyes were far too clear for being in such close proximity to the vampiress...who wasn't a vampire anymore.  Her aura read absolutely human, which made Ash sober completely, eyes narrowing a little in both curiosity and concern. 

"I see that," he told Danielle softly, letting Darren get the other woman onto the couch and mentally picking her auras apart from his spot by his desk.  Human.  Entirely human.  Her abilities were all gone, her immortality, her power.  Completely and utterly human.  What.  The Fuck.

Darren glanced up as Danielle asked him all kinds of questions, including what he'd been doing, and he gave her a look that was clearly asking her if she was out of her mind.  "I was wiping down the bar, that's it.  I sure as hell didn't have anything to do with this, she walked in and I thought something was different about her, then I gave her a hug and she started to collapse," he explained, alternating between watching Katya as she made her phone calls, glancing to Ash to see if he had any bright ideas, and back to Danielle in case she had anymore rapid-fire questions. 

At least Katya was taking charge of the situation with her sisters, from the sound of it.

It wasn't difficult to understand that it was apparently all three of the sisters, which made sense in many ways and therefore didn't help Ash out too much in figuring out what was wrong.  It could have been something that affected them because they were sisters and therefore connected, something in their bloodline (which suggested that they needed to contact Theron and see if he was having any troubles), or something affecting them because they were vampires.  Basically, he needed more information to be certain of anything, except that they were safe.

"Batten will make sure that Sasha is safe, I'm certain, and I've only heard good things about the men in SWAT, so your sisters should be safe," he agreed with Danielle, though he doubted less than she did.  He actually felt better about Sasha having been with Anya when it happened, since there wasn't a chance in hell that Connor and Capricia wouldn't be on that situation in a second.  Sasha would be about as safe as she could be with the hunters, but Tanya being with just one of the SWAT guys wasn't quite as certain to him.  If an enemy appeared, that one man wasn't going to be able to do as much as the hunters or himself would do for Sasha and Katya. 

Awesome.  So, they had to figure it out quickly.  Had anyone heard from Aristide recently?  That man had been awfully quiet.

[Katya]

Katya's phone rang again, and this time it was Marius. The conversation was very brief, but it told Katya much more than she already knew. She looked up as Danielle opened her mouth to start naming the people she could personally say would be powerful enough to do such a thing, and held up her hand.

"Marius has lost his power as well. And Nikolas. He said it just happened not ten minutes ago, which was when this happened to me." She paused. "I'm starting to believe this doesn't just effect my sisters and I, or those whom we've sired." She frowned. "Do you know any vampires who you can call to check on?" she asked, raising her brows.

On one hand, if it were all of them, she would be relieved to know that it wasn't something she'd somehow done or been caught in the middle of - for that matter, it was neither her sisters nor Theron's fault. On the other hand, if it were all of the vampires suddenly going human, either someone was meddling with power they did not understand, or someone meddling with power they fully understood.

She felt several hundred years' worth of vomit suddenly raising up her throat, and leaned back on the couch, closing her eyes and trying to calm down. She held her hand up to Darren, gesturing for him to sit with her. Old habits would die hard; Katya still reached for him as though he would bend to the will of her power.

[Ash Leone]

Ash and Danielle had apparently gone off in the exact same direction mentally, which wasn't terribly surprising, so he was making a personal list of anyone he thought might be powerful enough to do this.  Unfortunately, he knew that he wouldn't make a similar list that anyone else might be making, which meant that he couldn't fix it, either.  This was big magic, and if it was someone he knew of who'd done it, his opinion of their power was going to be rising quite a bit.  He still had to wonder if it was Aristide, but he didn't see the purpose.

Not that Papa really had to have an obvious reason for anything he did. 

Having Katya get off the phone and offer them information that just made the situation seem that much better and worse interrupted his thought processes, and he simply glanced at Dani before he pulled out his own phone and started dialing.  He had been around far too long not to know any vampires, so contacting them about this was hardly a problem.  Their answers were. 

"It seems to be all vampires," he told the room after three such calls to vampires who shared no blood relation.  "I hate to say it, but I almost wish it would have been something that you and your sisters, or just Theron's line, was afflicted with."

It may have sounded a bit 'mean', but it would have been easier to deal with.  There was no way in hell that there was anything that he could do about someone powerful enough to hit all of these vampires with this, and from a distance.  "I have to call the guild leaders," he told the room at large, whether they all thought that was a good thing, or not.

No, he didn't want the guilds to know that it seemed that all of the vampires had been rendered human, but the leaders needed to know that their vampiric members were at risk and needed to be sheltered, and that included Diamond (if they weren't somehow involved or already on top of it, both of which were likely). 

[Darren Liten]

Wow, was this situation headed south fast.  After settling Katya on the couch, Darren had started just watching and listening to the phone conversations that kept cropping up between Katya and Ash, and none of it sounded good for the vampires and anyone who gave a shit about them.  It was Ash's mention of the guilds that really got Darren thinking, though.  Should they warn the guilds?  If all of the vampires were suddenly human, then weren't they ridiculously easy targets now?  Ash had to know what he was doing, but Darren still considered it, and then, he considered what it meant for him.  

The vampires were easy targets.

His more open, concerned expression closed up with the sudden realization, and that was specifically because he didn't want anyone in the room to know what he was thinking.  Ash was the only actual mind-reader with Katya rendered human, but Danielle was very good at picking up on non-verbal cues, so he was actually glad when Katya held her hand out to him, reaching to pull him down to sit with her.  Honestly, he didn't even consider refusing her, so it wasn't just an old habit for her.  With or without her power bearing down on him, she appealed to the more affectionate side of his inner cat.  Of course, the fact that he was essentially programmed by now to do what she wanted didn't necessarily mean she'd have any real sway over him if he set his mind to something.

Or a few somethings.

He settled into the couch beside Katya, sliding his arm around her shoulders to offer her the comfort she needed, but part of his brain was still buzzing with the implications of this whole clusterfuck.  If the vampires were all human, that meant Purezza and Raphael.  There were a few others that he wasn't fond of, but those two stuck in his brain.  He didn't think getting to Raphael would be possible, not with how much non-vampire security there was in Midnight (he wasn't stupid), but Purezza?  He had to call Connor when he got done here, or Andrew.  If he could get even an idea as to where she was...he'd enjoy turning the tables on her.  

[Katya]

 Katya said nothing when Ash decided to call the guild leaders, mostly because she didn't care one way or the other. She was surprisingly more aloof as a human than as a vampire, and the longer she was human, the more inaccessible she would become. Being a vampire changed you, and over time you would begin to feel and think differently. Given the opportunity, though, it seemed that your basic instincts and feelings would come back. Katya as a human was nothing like the sweet, kind and loving woman that these people had come to know.

"Despite the fact that it makes them targets, I hope nobody is stupid enough to attack them," she said, looking at Darren with a leveling gaze, almost as though she knew what he was thinking. "Some, if not many, rose to power for a reason," she reminded them. "I can think of a few off the top of my head who still retain abilities even now." It also helped that Katya was old enough that she had run in many social circles; she could account for a few off the top of her head who would still be formidable. One in particular.

"I need to make a call," she said rather suddenly. She jumped off of the couch, grabbed her phone from the seat cushion, and vanished outside.

[Darren Liten]

Honestly, Ash hadn't really expected anyone to give a shit if he called the guild leaders, but warning them that he was going to be making a string of phone calls in the midst of Katya's crisis was only fair.  If he noticed anything different about her (and he may have, considering how good he was with auras and the fact that hers were suddenly much more accessible to him), he neither acknowledged it or was surprised.  She was far too old to have been unchanged by her time as a vampire, and with the reintroduction of her humanity, he could understand old habits returning.  he'd certainly changed since he'd lost his mortal life, and she was quite a bit older than he was; suddenly, he was very grateful that whatever this magic was hadn't rendered all immortals human again.  There would have been no way of knowing whether his own human habits would have fallen back into place.

He called each guild leader and spent no more than a minute on the phone with each to explain the situation and express caution, and even though he knew that something MAJOR had happened with Lucien Cobriana, he was still a little wary about letting the Onyx leader know that all of the vampires seemed to be walking around with a target on their back.  Surprisingly, Cobriana was the most direct and business-like of them all, giving off an air like he really couldn't have cared any less if he tried.  It was encouraging, but still curious, and Ash got off the phone with him in less than a minute, glancing at the cell like it had done something surprising.  He would be interested in talking with Cobriana in person, just to try to get a feel for him, because something was different. 

It would just have to take place after this mess.

Darren really had no legitimate understanding of Katya's personality, so he really had no way of knowing if there was anything different about her when he wasn't floating in the warm fuzzies that her power created.  He was obviously still fond of her, but it was actually a much more guy kind of way than the decidedly feline way that he usually liked her.  It also meant that, because he wasn't reacting to her like an adoring pet, he also didn't take the way she looked at him when she explained that the vampires out there still weren't good targets as humans or the way that she jumped up to make a private call personally.

Instead, he watched her go curiously, then leaned back against the couch hoping that Ash or Danielle would do something interesting while he considered what he intended to do.  He sure as hell knew that if he wanted to take advantage of this situation, he was going to need some kind of help.  He didn't even necessarily want someone to go with him, and if it blew up in his face, so be it.  He just didn't have the tracking abilities that the seasoned hunters did, so finding the former vampires he was interested in would be difficult.

He wondered, briefly, if Danielle would be willing to help, but he was hesitant to ask.  With her, it was sometimes difficult to tell because she always seemed to have reasons you couldn't fathom for anything she did.  Sometimes, he thought that she even bewildered Ash, but the triste was another who was impossible to get a solid read on.  Half of the time, Darren was pretty positive that Ash only reacted out of a desire to appear accessible to the mortals around him while he kept his own motives for doing anything he did to himself, and then at other times, it seemed like he really thought they were all crazy and impossible to understand.  It was fitting that Ash and Danielle had finally gotten together, because they were both so damn confusing. 

Fortunately, Darren was smart enough not to ask Ash's help in going after any vampires.  He wasn't even sure if he wanted to kill any, since just nailing one or two of them in the teeth would have sufficed.  Still, he knew the triste wouldn't do it, and if he asked Danielle and she refused, there was a chance that Ash would know about it, too.  Actually, considering Ash's influence and the way it seemed to be leveling Danielle out (and encouraging some kind of responsible streak that Darren usually appreciated), he wasn't asking her.  He'd be really pissed if he wasted his chance at this tied to a support beam or something equally retarded. 

His other option was to call Persephone.  He didn't tend to go there when he needed something, partially because it wasn't her problem and he wasn't some needy damsel in distress for her to come clean up after, and partially because he had to wonder if the more time he spent in her presence, the further he'd get sucked into her world.  He'd already gotten a brief taste of Midnight, he and his parents' presence was required at the next holiday dinner with the head honchos, and Persephone's father (not to mention all of the other powerful people there) had shown interest in him.  Asking her for help, especially with a violent venture, felt almost worse.

Didn't mean he wouldn't do it, though.

"Do you still need me?" he asked Ash and Danielle, glancing from one to the other as they talked quietly for any objections that might require him to stay.  Ash waved him off and Danielle didn't seem to pay him much mind, so he was up and out the door without any further comments.  He should have gone back to the bar, but it was early still and Anthony was around to cover if someone came in.  He had to make a phone call of his own, though he wasn't expecting to walk out and catch the end of Katya's call, or the heavily accented name that fell from her lips.

Raphael.  So, Katya knew him, and well enough to call him in their moment of weakness, or whatever they wanted to call it.  He turned around and went out the back for his own call, not wanting to have Katya overhear any of his, since she would understand more than just a name from his call, not that he would drop any.

"Hey, how busy are you?  I wanna pay someone a visit, but I need an address," he started, not even bothering to mention the state of vampire affairs; it was Persephone, so she already knew and she'd be guaranteed to know the kind of visit he was talking about and why.  He had no delusions that she wasn't aware of the vampire trouble he'd had in the past.

[Katya]

 Katya, unfortunately, did not know that Darren had come out behind her. Yet another reason why she needed her powers back. She had called Raphael just as the thought occurred to her that some vampires would retain their abilities. Raphael had been changed by vampirism, just as she had - in fact it was the vampirism that caused his power to manifest how it had. No, he wasn't one of the vampires whose unique abilities had been possessed pre-death, not like that fire-starting Witch Michael.

"Where are you?" she demanded in perfectly accented Romanian. She began to pace, folding her arm that did not hold the phone across her waist. She glanced up every so often as she walked around in a circle, kicking at various rocks and pausing to watch traffic. "Rafael. Rafael. Rafael! I'm coming for you. Stay where you are." There was a pause and she was obviously listening to someone on the other end, and given the way she squinted her eyes and held the phone away from her ear at a short distance, that person was yelling. Darren may have even heard it, though he wouldn't have known what the voice was saying.

"Forget about her!" Katya finally burst, flailing her free hand and stomping her feet in an uncharacteristic and tantrum-like fashion. "Text me where you are. I've got to shake my friends and I'll meet you." There was another short pause before she slowly raised her hand and made a strangling motion. "Rafael, I swear to God, she'd better be gone when I get there."

As she hung up the phone, she looked over her shoulder, but saw nothing. She went back inside to where Ash and Danielle were, throwing up an apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry, but I have to go," she said. "As you can imagine, this is causing a little bit of a stir, and there are some people who can't seem to take care of themselves." It wasn't a total lie, but it wasn't entirely the truth, either. She wasn't really sorry. She did firmly believe Raphael couldn't find his way out of a paper bag on his own though, so the bit about someone not being able to take care of themself? That was totally true.

"Just tell Darren I said goodbye, won't you? I assume he's stepped out, but I don't know where, and I don't really have the time to track him down." And with that, she nodded, gave a little wave, and went out the door.

[Persephone]

Persephone was in the middle of it when he called, and she rolled her eyes as she answered the phone. "Darren, as you can imagine, I'm significantly busy right now dealing with an emergency," she told him, her clipping accent making her sound more professional than she really was. She took the phone away from her ear and Darren could hear her yelling under the muffle of her hand, "Dad! Would you sit down? I'll handle it. It isn't like you aren't still a Jaguar. Then let me know if that changes, okay?" She lifted the phone back to her ear.

"For who? I might be willing to give you information, but that depends on who it is and why you need it. If it's a vampire here, you can forget it," she added. "I can't sell out my boss. I'll get my ass kicked, regardless of how much they like you."

For something only having happened less than an hour beforehand, the whole of Midnight was not happy. They were trying to account for everyone and failing. Most of the trainers were gone as it was; some of them were in other countries, now effectively stuck since they couldn't just wink themselves back. Niall had been there with Verity thankfully, still in bed from what Persephone knew about their sleeping habits. She imagined she'd be hearing about it in a few minutes from their viewpoint.

She was a little worried, but it wasn't for the vampires. Some of them had been even worse as people... what they'd do if they thought that their powers were gone might be a little extreme. Hopefully they'd all just stay inside and watch TV like normal people did on rainy days, but she couldn't count on it.

[Darren Liten]

Well, if he'd had any doubt whatsoever about whether it had effected all of the vampires in the area (or the world), Persephone answered his question without even meaning to by yelling at her father.  Darren actually couldn't help smiling just the slightest, trying to imagine the ridiculous interactions going on there.  He was glad that he wasn't there for it, honestly; Kronos was intimidating as hell, and even without being a vampire, he was a jaguar and Darren was confident he was just as good at being one as Persephone was, if not better.  If he wasn't afraid that they'd kill him in the process, he'd have expressed interest in learning whatever they could teach him. 

Yes, he was that sick of being a vampire punching bag that he'd have taken lessons from Midnight operatives. 

"I don't wanna know anything about your boss, or anything that'll piss them off," he told her, and he meant it.  He figured that this thing with the vampires wouldn't be permanent, and he sure as hell wasn't going to have the big bosses at Midnight (and the even bigger 'parents' or whatever Justinian and Iloquil happened to be) pissed at him and everyone he knew.  No fucking way. 

Actually, he was hoping that Raphael wouldn't piss them off.  He couldn't really remember what Verity had said in the first few minutes after that asshole vampire had finished with him, considering how messed up he'd been and how much effort it had taken to pull himself back together as quickly as he could.  Raphael deserved to get his ass kicked.  "I'm looking for Purezza, an Akka.  Raphael, too, if he's not hiding at home."

'Home'.  If Raphael, and the other Midnight vampires, were smart, they were staying in Midnight.  When the hunters got wind of this, and they would, it would go badly.  "I'm gonna break into her house and lace it with holy items," he said, and he was mostly joking.  What he really wanted to do was beat the living hell out of her for the bites (plural, which was BAD from an Akka), for the voice tricks, the beatings and sending him out to get creamed by a car.  For making that man shoot himself right in front of Darren.  For all those things, and everything she was likely to do in the future.  He didn't even know what she'd done to his uncle.  Beating the hell out of her, leaving her in her house and THEN filling it with holy items could be a plan.  Let her go back to being a vamp and see how much she liked it.  Bitch.